November 2013 – Page 2 – Aleczan's New Diary (FFXIV: ARR)

Fleece Farming, Again

By Aleczan Knighthill | November 8, 2013 - 9:04 pm |November 29, 2013 General, My Blab, My Rants

Fleece Farming

By Aleczan Knighthill | November 8, 2013 - 3:34 pm |November 12, 2013 My Blab

Today I logged in in Coerthas after some FATE hunting last night. I saw Svara’s series was up, so I went there. This is the only set of FATEs in Coerthas that I enjoy making effort to go to, because it is 3 FATEs in a row, and thus I could hardly be too late to get good EXP. I usually end up getting gold medals, which yield about 15k, 15k, and 30k EXP consecutively.

Anyway, after that, I saw an empty Fleece farming spot, so I claimed it in hope to get some Fleece for my new Woolen Robe set, and to kill time while waiting for next Svara FATE. Then a MNK (or a PGL, not sure) came with battle chocobo and shared half of the farm with me. I don’t mind because I can’t kill all the sheep before first dead sheep respawns anyway. We both claimed and killed the Karakuls one by one.

Then I had to go for lunch. I returned and saw the same person still there, so I resumed my farming. After a while, the person left. So I kept killing. It’s a shame I can’t remember their name because I didn’t pay attention enough to memorize it and went AFK for lunch for a long time and forgot to take screenshot when I got back, and they left abruptly later. :(

Then another matter came up and I had to switch away from FFXIV to do stuff on my PC. Sometimes I peaked and saw a BRD (or ARC, I didn’t check) by the name of Akira Beaty (nice person!) killing all the sheep, and I went back to doing my other stuff.

Then, when I finally got back to the game and started killing ONE sheep, that person Akira Beaty ran away, saying something like “Aleczan you were here first and now you’re back so I’ll leave. Don’t want to be an asshole that wants to steal.” Probably referring to another person, BLM, who was also present at the camp and pulling all the sheep together before using AoE spell to kill them off.

That was very kind. Though it is unnecessary to feel obligated to leave the farm when AFK farmer who was there before gets back, I felt very grateful. I don’t own the farm simply by being there first, but it is very considerate and nice of them to yield the way like that. It makes me happy to find such players in the game. As I hate competition, and I feel that MMORPG should be more like helping each other instead of being hostile and competitive.

Anyway, I continued to try to win the claim war against the BLM, named Kaol’tan something (they turned out to be quite nice and friendly). Sometimes I win 2 or 3 Karakuls from one round of pops (probably 8 sheep there in total). The intense, unfriendly competition went on and on. I got kind of annoyed and just stopped caring about the claim and just kept attacking the sheep even when I lost the claim war anyway, because I get EXP when I outdamage them. And I think sometimes I even got the Fleece, too.

Then at one point, the BLM started talking in /say first, saying “So close” which probably referring to me almost winning the claim on that one Karakul. I didn’t know what they wanted so I said “Yeah so close and I’m almost level up too.” Because my EXP bar was almost full, it made me happy. The person was shocked to know that I was doing it for EXP and said it is bad EXP farm and suggested that FATEs are far better for EXP.

I explained to them that I can’t keep up with the chocobo riding to get to FATEs and that I got bad EXP from FATEs when I get there late (and I meant to say 1000 EXP but I mistyped it into 100 EXP, LOL!) They said joining FATE party will rock the EXP. I said thanks, I’ll do that later. Well, I usually don’t join FATE party because I want to level up my Chocobo too. So I always have my battle chocobo in my party when in Coerthas.

I also told the BLM that I kill Sheep for EXP to kill time while waiting for Svara, and also hoping for lucky drop of Fleece to make my new set of robe, as the current one (also woolen) is due for Materia conversion already. Then, at one point they just sat there on the ledge and stopped killing the sheep, probably trying to let me have an easy time claiming the sheep and killing for some fleece. So I went around attacking them in a killing spree. At my full speed and attention, I could hardly kill 5 Karakuls before first one pop, as I killed them one by one, with the help of Ifrit-Egi and my chocobo. And after a while, I almost ran out of MP because I’ve been using Fester to consume my Aetherflow effects instead of refilling my MP with Energy Drain. XD

Then it was 10 mins until maintenance, so I regretfully had to leave the scene, in order to get Sanctuary effect while logged out.

Anyway, by talking to a farm competitor and having friendlier ambiance in the claim war, it feels much less stressful to compete, and I don’t get mad when I lose the claim to my opponent when they seem friendly. Also, at first impression you may feel or judge that someone is a complete bastard and so greedy, but if they talk to you and you exchange opinions a little, you might feel like they’re not too bad a person. I can’t say the BLM is a great person because I only talked to them for less than an house, but at least they were not just a totally greedy, selfish jerk who doesn’t share with others. They were willing to share. However, if I never talked to the BLM, I would probably now be ranting about them here, saying they were awfully greedy for hogging all the Karakuls, blah blah blah. LOL.

It’s wonderful how a little bit of human interaction makes gaming much more enjoyable.

Karakul Claim War

By Aleczan Knighthill | November 5, 2013 - 9:07 pm |November 5, 2013 My Rants, Quests, Screenshots

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I never liked Fleece farming because it’s highly competitive. I used to farm it once or twice so that I have materials for some clothes (or some LQ items). It is overcamped most of the time, and you can’t expect hospitality from your competitor, even if you are level 37 and they are level 50.

Why would I farm the Karakul using my level 37 class? Well, yesterday I needed to get my Arcanist to level 38 in order to proceed through the main scenario quest. I was stuck on “Road to Redemption” where it requires level 38 in order to claim reward. So I went around the area, getting every sidequest I could. Most sidequests that pop there at the time were level 36, 37, and 38.

There was one sidequest at Coerthas that pitched me against greedy fleece farmer right outside of Camp Dragonhead. Quest name was “Sheep to the Slaughter” and it requires killing 6 Ornery Karakuls (thanks the Twelve that key items have like 100% drop rate, so they will always drop after each kill, otherwise I would be pulling my hair, or someone else’s hair, out from more frustration).

It was a fierce claim war. After killing 2 sheep easily without competition, I was suddenly always outclaimed by the SMN’s summon’s spell, because Garuda Egi has epic long range and speed, as I’ve observed. And while some people kill the sheep one by one, this person would claim one on the ground above, and claim both of the Karakuls on the lower ground as well. I was very upset because if I don’t get the claim and don’t outdamage them, I get no kill credit and earn no key item. So I had to work very very hard in order to accomplish both.

After a tough half hour or so (could be shorter, but my frustration might have made it seem much longer than reality) I got the quest done. And after leaving the camp, I remembered to come back again to take a screenshot so I won’t forget their name. =_= I know it’s creepy to do so, but I was so mad at them, because I said in /say that I needed the sheep for sidequest, and yet they still claimed every possible sheep they could without any sympathy. I personally feel it is rude of them to arrive later and barged into my farm, hogging all of the mobs when I NEEDED them for my quest. Some people are inconsiderate.

Then, after all the sidequests level 36 and 37, I was still a bit short of leveling up to 38. FATE in the area were nuts, I can’t even see the enemies in FATE, because it is always very crowded and has like 1000 people or so in each FATE. Well, 1000 was maybe exaggeration, but for example, a Croc FATE boss died in 50 seconds after spawning. I merely got there and unmounted my chocobo, and could only land 1 Bio. So EXP sucks in FATE for me in Coerthas.

Anyway, while camping outside of Damp Dragonhead to wait for FATE to pop, I saw another Karakul camp which was empty, so I started killing some more Karakuls, in hope for Fleece as a by-product. A knight in black armor came, I think it was Paladin. And they observed me. After seeing that I could only kill through 3 Karakuls in the area before the first one repops, the person started killing other Karakuls that I never claimed. So we shared the camp by half and half. It was a pleasant farming for a while.

Then, a Bard came and started outclaiming everyone. I put up a fight by speed-claiming with all I got. Virus, Bio, Aero, and Energy Drain. I think I won the claim about 2 out of 3 times (limiting to only 3 Karakuls I was originally killing). I don’t run to compete with the Bard, because that would just give me disadvantage. Then, the Bard started using ability that covers an area on the ground, and it claims the sheep for them even when they ran away to get the other sheep in a far corner.

ffxiv_KarakulWar02

Boy, I was so mad. So I just spam spells on the sheep even when I was outclaimed anyway. And on some of their Karakuls, I still got EXP. Guess it was because I outdamaged them somehow (thanks Carbuncle and chocobo!) Although I hate competition, I didn’t want to just yield my way to them because I felt that I was there first and thus I had the rights of way. Mind you, though, that I understand very well that a roaming monster is a free game. Being there first does not mean you own all the mobs. However, with monsters having such rapid respawn rate, one could easily afford to be kind and share with others without being overly selfish like that. It’s just frustrating that some people have no respect to fellow player at all.

For example, when I was on my White Mage farming Ornery Karakul, I would stop and let other people have some of them if I see that they were below level 40, as I am aware of the sheep quest. They would kill just a few, and then leave, and it never took long. I don’t even have to let them have all of the 6 (or 5?) sheep, I could let them have 2 in each respawn round, as they kill one by one and cannot kill off all sheep in one camp fast enough anyway. After they leave the camp, I can continue being greedy and claim 3 or 4 sheeps at a time again.

For this Bard, however, my plea of needing a few thousand EXP to get me to level 38 for quest requirement fell on deaf ears (or blind eyes). It was one of the reasons why I got persistent and kept competing with them instead of just leaving to kill other mobs. Anyway, the claim war continued for more than half an hour (by rough estimation, because I lost sense of time and the battle of Karakul claiming seemed like forever!) Then, the person suddenly disappeared. So I happily hunted more Karakuls until I leveled up, then left for more sidequests and main story quests.